The Classroom The Clinic The Practice Students in Dr. Aurora Denial’s New England Eye Commonwealth Optometrist and low vision specialist clinical reasoning course learn to provides advanced-level, hands-on Dr. Susan Primo applies the standards New England College listen to patients, ask the right learning experience for post graduates, of excellence she gained at NECO in questions, and apply their critical such as cornea and contact lens resident the clinic, the research arena, and the of Optometry President thinking skills to deliver the best Brittney Mazza – while providing a classroom as she prepares the next Clifford Scott, OD ’68, MPH The New England College of Optometry (NECO) care possible. full range of comprehensive eye care generation of professionals to deliver prepares the next generation of eye care Vice President and Chief Financial Officer services to Boston residents. tomorrow’s best practices in vision providers, teachers, and innovators. Located in Bruce Bernier, MBA healthcare. the heart of Boston, the College is a small, independent graduate institution that currently Vice President of Institutional Advancement enrolls students from 29 states and 41 countries. Nancy Broude, EdM NECO graduates 10 percent of the country’s new optometrists each year and supervises 10 Vice President and Dean of Academic Affairs percent of the nation’s optometric residents. Barry Fisch, OD ’71 5 9 13 Vice President of Clinical Affairs and New England Eye Chief Executive Officer of New England Eye Jody Fleit, MS New England Eye (NEE) is the patient care and Letter from the President 2 clinical education subsidiary of the College. It Vice President of Business Development Letter from the Chair of the Board 3 is the largest provider of optometric services in Robert Gordon, CPA, MST Massachusetts with nearly 85,000 patient visits Class of 2014 Profile 4 annually in 45 locations – including 80 percent Learning the Art of Clinical Reasoning 5 of Boston’s community health centers. Using The New England College of Optometry mobile vans, NEE clinicians and students provide The Clinic as Classroom 9 Annual Report is published in December eye care to children and the elderly as well as to Best Practices in the Practice 13 by the Office of the President. disabled and homeless patients who are unable NEE Network Map 17 to travel to a clinic. www.neco.edu T 617.587.5647 Donor Report 18 NECO and NEE faculty and clinicians are F 617.587.5555 Financials 22 committed to improving access to care, preventing blindness, enhancing quality of life, New England College of Optometry and developing innovative, economically viable, 424 Beacon Street and reproducible models of eye care. Boston, Massachusetts 02115 ANNUAL REPORT 2010 ANNUAL REPORT 2010 1 “ Building upon NECO’s standards of excellence “ The decisions we make over the next requires not only an unremitting focus on several years will impact our growth what we do well, but also a fearless imagining and sustainability in the coming of what we can accomplish in the future.” decade and beyond.” FROM BEST PRACTICE TO NEXT PRACTICE TAKING THE LONG VIEW For almost 120 years, New England College of Healthcare System. NECO has also received a $1.3 Sustaining excellence requires a commitment to Today, many institutions and individuals are not Optometry (NECO) has embodied best practices in million grant from the National Institutes of Health continuous self-evaluation and a willingness to only tightening their budgets, but also evaluating optometric education. Inherent in our definition of (NIH) that focuses on the development of new evolve. At NECO, we’re taking the long view by their spending to ensure that they invest in what best practices is a creative approach toward “next optical techniques to image rod photoreceptors in carefully considering how the decisions we make matters most. I hope you will continue to invest in practices” that build upon NECO’s standards of both normal and diseased retinas. These efforts will over the next several years will impact our growth NECO’s future through your financial support. Your excellence in education and clinical care. That dual be led, respectively, by NECO faculty members and sustainability in the coming decade and beyond. gifts strengthen our efforts to sustain and enhance orientation requires not only an unremitting focus Stacey S. Choi, OD, PhD and Nathan Doble, PhD. those aspects of the College that matter most to The bold creativity that characterizes the NECO on what we do well, but also a fearless imagining of our students and the greater Boston community: the The heritage of the College is one of discovery, community extends beyond our classrooms, clinics, what we can accomplish in the future – both in the excellence of our programs, the high quality of our imagination, and a willingness to embrace and laboratories to our operations as well. We’re classroom and through our research efforts. faculty, and the far-reaching impact of our research technological and paradigmatic change with determined to make investments in our academic and clinical work. We all know that tomorrow’s classrooms will look insight and enthusiasm. We continue to address programs and research endeavors, technological very different from those of today. As technology tomorrow’s challenges and demands from a firm infrastructure, and facilities that will have a positive We will continue to keep you informed of the continues to transform the student experience, a foundation of excellence – a foundation that will impact on our students, our faculty, our profession, progress of our strategic initiatives and look forward growing number of courses will no longer follow serve us well as we work to honor our legacy of and the patients we serve. In this way, we honor the to your feedback as we work together to build a the traditional model of a lecture hall filled with making a difference to our students, the investments that others – alumni, friends, long-term and sustainable operating framework students. At NECO, we are shaping strategies for community, and the optometric profession. foundations, and government agencies – make in us. for NECO. the development and implementation of a more Our ability to meet this goal is inextricably linked self-directed educational model in which students to the economic realities we face as a small private are free to learn at their own pace, enabling them college – one that is heavily dependent on tuition to earn credits as they amass knowledge rather revenues and is housed in aging facilities that are than credit hours. costly to maintain. For that reason, we recently Clifford Scott, OD ’68, MPH Steven P. Manfredi On the scientific side, we are poised to begin a convened a Special Committee on Physical Facilities President Chair of the Board major project that involves conducting important and Business Modeling to evaluate NECO’s current translational research in the area of adaptive optics. physical plant and operational model in light of our Thanks to a $1.5 million grant from the ongoing expenditures and projected space and Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research technology requirements. Comprising trustees, Center (TATRC) of the Department of Defense, external experts, faculty, staff, students, and alumni, NECO will be investigating high-resolution retinal the committee will provide recommendations imaging as a diagnostic marker for blast-induced that will enable NECO to meet its strategic goals traumatic brain injury. The College will conduct this while becoming a more efficient and financially research in collaboration with the VA Boston sustainable institution. 2 ANNUAL REPORT 2010 ANNUAL REPORT 2010 3 CLASS OF 2014 Students who entered NECO this past fall are committed to success, evidenced by their impressive GPA and OAT scores, according to Dr. Taline Farra, assistant dean and director of NECO’s LEARNING THE ART OF CLINICAL REASONING office of admissions. The new students arrived from 24 states, Canada, China, Trinidad, England, and Korea. They received their undergraduate degrees from prominent institutions of higher education including New York University, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Bates, Tufts, College of the Holy Cross, Emory, Brandeis, University of Waterloo, University of Toronto, and University of British Columbia. The 117 members of the Class of ’14 were selected from 889 applicants, a 14 percent increase over last year, demonstrating NECO’s “ Memorization alone doesn’t enable preeminent position in eye care delivery, research, and education. you to take care of patients. You have to be able to apply your knowledge.” Meet some members of the Class of ‘14 - Aurora Denial, OD ’85 Eric Auyeung | San Francisco, California | BS, Psychology with Biology emphasis, University of California, Davis “NECO’s main focus is not on the doctors-in-training, but the patients – and that’s how it should be.” • Most admired spectacle designer: Ralph Anderl • Looks forward to experiencing a New England winter Mila Leboeuf | Montreal, Quebec, Canada | BS, Biochemistry, University of Montreal It’s Wednesday morning at the New England College “NECO’s location in a city with numerous other schools guarantees a great student dynamic.” of Optometry, and students are making their way • Her hero: Canadian astrophysicist Hubert Reeve. “He is dedicated to spreading awareness of environmental issues. He has my complete respect.” • Is perfecting her culinary skills into Lecture Hall 3. Associate Professor of Optometry Dr. Aurora Denial stands at the front of the room, Lauren Rowe | Quitman, Georgia | BS, Exercise Science, University of Mississippi welcoming students as they walk in. Once everyone “The instructors at NECO treat every student with respect and as a future colleague.” • Trained in sports vision therapy at Ole Miss is settled, she takes to the lectern and informs her • Best thing about Boston: “I love the fact that this is such a sports town!” students that today’s clinical reasoning class is special: Roslyn Scalise | Calgary, Alberta, Canada | BS, Natural Sciences, University of Calgary Today they meet their patients.